Excerpt from A Biographical Dictionary of Psychologists, Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists

ADLER, ALFRED (1870-1937) – INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

Adler, an Austrian doctor and psychologist, who exerted a profound influence on psychiatry,
was one of the neo-Freudians and the first to break with Freud. He resigned as president of
the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1911 and formed a society that later became the Society
for Individual Psychology.

Major Contributions

Adler established many child guidance centers in schools in Vienna, and is credited with being
the pioneer psychiatrist of group counseling. He disagreed with Freud over the libido theory,
the sexual origin of neurosis and the importance of infantile wishes. Individual psychology
is a broad, socially-orientated, humanistic and holistic personality theory of psychology and
psychotherapy. Adler's system is invested with a great deal of common sense, for it makes sense
to the average reader. According to Adler, people are guided by values and goals of which they
may be aware, not driven by unconscious instincts. Adler believed that the main motives of
human thought and behaviour lie in the individual's striving for superiority and power, partly
in compensation for feelings of inferiority. The individual moves from a sense of inferior
to a sense of mastery. The individual cannot be considered apart from society, for all human
problems – relationships, occupation and love – are social. Adler coined the term 'inferiority
complex'. The neurotically disposed person is characterized by increased inferiority feelings,
underdeveloped social interest and an exaggerated, uncooperative goal of superiority. These
characteristics express themselves as anxiety and aggression.

Individual psychology emphasizes:

Social relationships, rather than biological factors

Self, rather than the id and the superego

Striving for self-actualization, rather than the sex instinct

The present, rather than early experiences

Equality and co-operation between the sexes

The person moves away from situations that make her/him feel inferior and toward goals
of success and superiority.

Adler's “masculine protest” describes the drive for superiority or completeness arising out
of a felt inferiority or incompleteness, femininity being regarded as incomplete and inferior.
Adler also developed a birth order theory; where children's position in their family – their
birth order – was seen as determining significant character traits.

Adlerian therapy goals

To establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship in which there is equality, trust
and acceptance and which does not reflect differences but sameness

1997, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Senior Member

2002, Yale University: Cherlin Lectureship

Between 1948 and 2006, Beck received over thirty more awards

He is the President of the non-profit Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research

He has received research awards from both the American Psychological Association and the
American Psychiatric Association

He was a visiting scientist of the Medical Research Council, Oxford, England, and is a
visiting fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, England, and a visiting Professor at several
American universities

Major Contributions

Trained as a psychoanalysis, Dr Beck designed and carried out a number of experiments to test
psychoanalytic concepts of depression, but he was disappointed with the results. He found that
helping patients identify their negative ideas about themselves, the world and the future,
patients were able to think more realistically, which led them to feel better emotionally and
behave more functionally. This led the development of Cognitive Therapy , which has been used
in a wide range of disorders. Some of his most recent work has focused on cognitive therapy
for schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and for patients who repeatedly attempt
suicide. His cognitive therapy was based on the view that behavior is primarily determined
by what that person thinks and that thoughts of low self-worth are incorrect and are due to
faulty learning. Cognitive therapy is particularly relevant in treating depression, where thoughts
of low self-worth and low self-esteem are a common feature. Beck has developed scales to assess
anxiety, hopelessness, mania, self esteem, panic, dysfunctional attitudes, substance abuse,
insight, obsessive compulsion, depression and suicide intent.

1932, Moved to the USA to become associate director of the Institute for Psychoanalysis,
Chicago

1934, Returned to private practice, New York City and to teaching at the New School for
Social Research. Settled in Brooklyn, where she developed her theories on neurosis, based
on her experiences as a psychotherapist

1942, Professor, New York Medical College

Founded the American Journal of Psychoanalysis and served as its editor until her death.

Major Contributions

Horney founded a neo-Freudian school of psychoanalysis based on the conclusion that neuroses
are the result of emotional conflicts arising from childhood experiences and later disturbances
in interpersonal relationships. She observed that the majority of her patients complained of
unhappiness and lack of fulfillment in their lives, and the difficulty of establishing and
maintaining relationships of quality. According to Horney, feelings of helplessness and despair
drive us into making decisions that are not fulfilling and leave us feeling dissatisfied. Such
feelings (formed early in childhood into defensive patterns) are self-perpetuating strategies
against anxiety. Her views on the concept of repression brought her into conflict with the
New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and forced her expulsion as an instructor. This led to her
founding the American Psychoanalytic Institute in 1941. Contrary to traditional psychoanalytic
theory of the day, Horney believed, that passivity was not restricted to women, but is determined
by culture. She rejected the notion of penis envy and other manifestations of male bias in
psychoanalytic theory. She also rejected the libido, the death instinct, and the Oedipus complex,
which she considered could be more adequately explained by cultural and social conditions.
Three strategies are available to the child in its search for safety:

Joint founder and editor, British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology – the first
British journal with dedicated space for social psychology – he was editor of several other
journals, including Journal of Social and Personnel Relationships

Major Contributions

Argyle opened up a whole new field of enquiry into non-verbal communication and social skills.
His widely translated The Penguin Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour is reputed to be the
best-selling psychology paperback, with sales probably exceeding half a million. He started
the social psychology section of the British Psychological Society. The first major research
area to benefit from his attentions was non-verbal communication. He subsequently constructed
and tested a model of “social skills” and their operation. He and his colleagues applied their
findings into training programs for the workplace and everyday living. The phrase “social skills”
is now commonplace in everyday speech, and the issues have gained a central place in educational
curricula, as well as employment and clinical psychology. The United States Library of Congress
catalog lists 44 titles of books authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited by Argyle, on
a wide variety of topics, and most focus on the positives of human existence: co-operation,
happiness, leisure, social interaction, social relationships and, for him, religious faith.
At noon, on the third of June 2004, at County Hall, Exeter, England, a Lucombe Oak tree was
planted in memory of Michael Argyle. A speech was given by Professor Jim Kennedy. Michael Argyle's
widow was present together with two daughters and four grandchildren.

BRIGGS MYERS, ISABEL, 1897-1979 – PERSONALITY TYPING

Isabel Briggs was the only daughter of Katherine and Lyman Briggs, an American scientist.
Although Isabel had no formal psychological training, around the time of WW1 she became interested
in the similarities and differences of human personality. When she became acquainted with the
work of Carl Jung (see entry) she quickly adopted and expanded what he had done. Marrying Clarence
Myers when she was young, Isabel, in addition to being a mother, published two mystery novels.
WW2 gave her the impetus to continue developing what was to become the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator,
(MBTI) getting her subjects from school students or from any interested person, then later,
medical and nursing students. Her work was not received warmly by the psychology fraternity,
and her lack of any formal qualifications made the whole system suspect.. However, she persisted
and with perseverance gained ground. Now the Indicator is accepted as a reliable personality
measure for people who were not mentally ill.

The MBTI measures eight personality preferences along four dimensions:

Extraversion (E) → Introversion (I). Extraversion/introversion describes the way we relate
to the world around us.

Sensing (S) → Intuition (N). Sensing/intuition describes the way we perceive the world.

Thinking (T) → Feeling (F). Thinking/feeling describes the way we make judgments.

Judgment (J) → Perception (P). Judgment/perception describes the way we make decisions.

There are sixteen types, made up from the dominant of each dimension.

The MBTI is used in a wide variety of different situations, and is a useful counseling tool,
and which clients easily understand and can relate to.

A person's type is made up of the four dominant functions. Helping a client to understand
his/her personality preferences is just one more way in which the client will gain insight
into how to mange his/her life with less stress.

How personality preferences might influence counseling

People who are too extroverted often get on people's nerves; someone who is too introverted
often has difficulty making contact with people at all

People who are high on sensing can get so caught up in counting the trees that they miss
the beauty of the wood; people who are too intuitive often seem 'away with the fairies'

People who are too high on thinking often intellectualize everything; people who are too
high on feeling often swamp others by their warmth

People who are too high on judgement often become judge, jury and executioner; people who
are too high on perception often give the impression of being grown up children.

While working with patients under hypnosis (with Joseph Breuer), Freud observed that often
there was improvement in the condition when the sources of the patients' ideas and impulses
were brought into the conscious. Also, observing that patients talked freely while under hypnosis,
he evolved his technique of free association. Noting that sometimes patients had difficulty
in making free associations, he concluded that painful experiences were being repressed and
held back from conscious awareness. Freud deduced that what was being repressed were disturbing
sexual experiences – real or in fantasy, and that repressed sexual energy and its consequent
anxiety finds an outlet in various symptoms that serve as ego defenses. His basic theory was
that neuroses are rooted in suppressed sexual desires and sexual experiences in childhood.
He maintained that many of the impulses forbidden or punished by parents are derived from innate
instincts. Forbidding expression to these instincts merely drives them out of awareness into
the unconscious. There they reside to affect dreams, slips of speech or mannerisms and may
also manifest themselves in symptoms of mental illness. Freud's view – that the conscious and
the unconscious are sharply divided and that access to the unconscious is denied except by
psychoanalysis – does not meet with universal acceptance. Rather, many believe that there are
various layers of awareness. In summary, Freud's view was that humans are driven by sex and
aggression, the same basic instincts as animals. Society is in constant struggle against any
expression of these. Psychoanalysis includes investigating mental processes not easily accessed
by other means. It is a method of investigating and treating neurotic disorders and the scientific
collection of psychological information. The main purpose of psychoanalysis is to make unconscious
material conscious. Freud died of cancer in London.

Major Literature

Freud was a prolific writer. Over 300 article and books are listed on http://www.psychematters.com/bibliographies/freudbib.htm
Some of them have been republished many times and the most comprehensive is still
Freud, S. (Ed. James Strachey ) Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud, 1953-1974. London, Hogarth Press, 1953-1974. New York: W W Norton & Co Ltd, 2000.

Jung received seven honorary degrees from universities in America, India, and England.
He was made a Member of the Royal Society, London (1939)

Founding editor (1913) of International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Major Contributions

Jung and Sigmund Freud became close working colleagues and Freud eventually came to regard
Jung as the crown prince of psychoanalysis and his heir apparent. Partly for temperamental
reasons and partly because of differences of viewpoint, the collaboration ended. Jung developed
his own school, which he called Analytical Psychology.

Principal differences between Jung and Freud:

Jung attached less importance to the role of sexuality in the neuroses.

He believed that the analysis of patient's immediate conflicts were more important than
the uncovering of the conflicts of childhood.

He defined the unconscious as including both the individual's own unconscious and that
which he inherited – the “collective unconscious”

To facilitate greater integration of both conscious and unconscious components.

Major Literature

Jung was a voluminous writer and his works are available as C. G. Jung Collected Works, published
by the Brunner-Routledge division of Taylor and Francis Books Ltd. London, England. A full
list is available at http://www.psychematters.com/bibliographies/jungbib.htm